Rohese of Monmouth

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Rohese of Monmouth
Bornabout 1135/1140
Diedin or near 1180
Other namesRohese de Monemue
Known forPatronage of Monmouth Priory
Spouse Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath
Children
Parents
Relatives Gilbert fitzBaderon (brother)
Monnow Bridge is a medieval bridge over the namesake river Monnow in the town of Monmouth, Wales. The existing bridge was completed in the late 13th century. It is the only remaining medieval fortified bridge in Britain. Monmouth - Monnow Bridge.jpg
Monnow Bridge is a medieval bridge over the namesake river Monnow in the town of Monmouth, Wales. The existing bridge was completed in the late 13th century. It is the only remaining medieval fortified bridge in Britain.

Rohese of Monmouth (Rohese de Monemue in Anglo-Norman; born about 1135/1140; died in or near 1180) was a member of the wealthy and powerful Anglo-Norman families in the Welsh Marches. [1]

Contents

Early life

She was the daughter of Baderon fitzWilliam, lord of Monmouth, and of his wife Rohese de Clare. [1] Rohese's paternal grandfather was William fitzBaderon (c. 1060/65? – before 1138) an Anglo-Norman nobleman of Breton descent, lord of Monmouth c. 1082-1125, mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book as in charge of Monmouth Castle and parts of the surrounding region. In 1101, Fitzbaderon ensured the consecration of the Monmouth Priory, established in 1075 by his uncle Withenoc, Lord of Monmouth who became a monk. Her paternal great grandmother Rohese Giffard was one of the few women mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book as holding land in her own right. [2]

Rohese's maternal grandparents were Gilbert Fitz Richard de Clare (c. 1066–c. 1117) and Adeliza de Clermont. Her grandfather had been an influential Anglo-Norman baron who was granted the Lordship of Cardigan, in Wales c. 1107–1111. [2]

Marriage

About the year 1155 Rohese married Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath. They had eight recorded children.

Legacy

Rohese is notable for the gift that she made, jointly with her husband and her son Robert, to Monmouth Priory. The Priory had benefited for more than half a century from her family's generosity, and it was clearly at her persuasion that this donation took place. Three shillings were to be given to the priory each year on St Michael's Day from the revenues of the town of Lydney in Gloucestershire. Rohese's brother Gilbert, otherwise known as a patron of literature, was among the witnesses to this donation. [3]

Rohese died around 1180 and Hugh married for a second time to Princess Rose Ní Conchobair, daughter of King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair. [4] There were two further children, William 'Gorm' de Lacy and Ysota de Lacy from this marriage. William fought alongside Rohese's sons Walter and Hugh junior in their struggles to gain power in Ireland. [5]

Notes

  1. 1 2 George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage; or, A History of the House of Lords and All its Members from the Earliest Times, Vol. X, Eds. H. A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, & Howard de Walden (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1945), p. 348
  2. 1 2 Keats-Rohan, K. S. B. (2023). Domesday people: a prosopography of persons occurring in English documents, 1066-1166; I: Domesday book. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press. ISBN   978-0-85115-722-1.
  3. ↑ W. Dugdale; J. Caley, H. Ellis, B. Bandinel, eds, Monasticon Anglicanum (6 vols. London, 1817-1830) vol. 4 p. 597
  4. ↑ Duffy, Seán (15 January 2005). Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-135-94824-5.
  5. ↑ Veach, Colin; Veach, Freya Verstraten. "William Gorm de Lacy: 'chiefest champion in these parts of europe'". Princes, Prelates and Poets in Medieval Ireland: Essays in Honour of Katharine Simms (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2013), 63-84.
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